Pacing in a 94-year-old runner during a 6-hour run

Abstract

It is well known that elderly people up to 90 years of age are able to finish a marathon. We have no knowledge, however, how runners at the age of 90 years or older pace during a long run. In this case report, we describe the pacing of a 94-year-old man competing in a 6-hour run in order to prepare for a marathon at the age of 95 years in category M95. In the “6-Stunden-Lauf ” held in Brugg, Switzerland, participants have to run as many laps of 0.934 km as possible on a completely flat circuit within 6 hours to achieve as many kilometers as possible. Before and after the competition we measured body weight, percentage of body fat, fat-free mass and percentage of body water using a bioelectrical impedance scale. On the day before the start, 24 hours after the finish and then every 24 hours for the following 4 days, capillary blood samples at a fingertip were drawn to determine hemoglobin, hematocrit, leukocytes, platelets, C-reactive protein, creatine kinase, creatinine and potassium and sodium. The runner achieved 26 laps during the 6 hours, equal to 24.304 km. Lap times increased continuously and running speed decreased nearly linearly. A large main effect of time point (hours) of the race on running speed was observed (p=0.015, η2=0.48) with running speed being slower in the last hour than that in the first hour (3.5±1.4 km/h versus 5.3±0.4 km/h). Body mass decreased by 0.6%, percent body fat by 1.4% and fat-free mass by 0.7%. During recovery, hemoglobin, hematocrit and the number of thrombocytes increased, whereas the number of leukocytes remained unchanged. C-reactive protein was highest on day 1 after the race and decreased by day 4 nearly to zero. Creatine kinase was slightly elevated pre-race, highest the day after the race and remained slightly elevated until day 4. Creatinine and potassium were increased pre-race but returned to normal values during recovery. Sodium remained within normal values on all days. Based on the linear decrease in running speed, we extrapolated for the marathon distance to run a marathon in age group M95 (i.e., male marathoners aged 95–99 years). In the worst-case scenario (i.e., the athlete develops maximal fatigue), he would stop the race before 40 km, in the best scenario (i.e., the athlete develops minimal fatigue), he would achieve an overall race time of ~8.3 hours and in the most probable scenario (i.e., the athlete can continue in the same manner), the final race time will be longer than 11 hours.

Pacing and Changes in Body Composition in 48 h Ultra-Endurance Running—A Case Study

“…For ultra-marathon races, mainly elite athletes have been investigated, competing in 100 km [10,11,12,13] and 100 mile [10] ultra-marathons. For master athletes (i.e., runners of 35 years and older), two studies investigated the pacing trends in 100 km ultra-marathoners [11,13] and, in one case study, the pacing of a 94-year-old runner in a 6 h run [15]. To the best of our knowledge, no further studies have ever investigated the pacing strategy of a master ultra-marathoner competing in any ultra-marathon longer than 6 h and/or 100 miles.…”

“…While the case study of the 94-year-old runner in a 6 h run also considered aspects of changes in anthropometric characteristics [15], we have only limited data about changes in anthropometric characteristics (e.g., body mass, body water) in ultra-marathoners competing in race distances longer than 100 km. It is well known that an ultra-marathon leads to a decrease in body mass [16,17,18]; however, the impact of a 48 h run has not been examined yet.…”

“…So far, changes in anthropometric characteristics have only been investigated by comparing pre-race and post-race values [16,17], with little data about the recovery period available [15]. Furthermore, we have no knowledge about changes in anthropometric characteristics during an ultra-marathon, since measurements during a race were lacking in the literature.…”

Pacing During and Physiological Response After a 12-Hour Ultra-Marathon in a 95-Year-Old Male Runner

“…While it is well-known that age group marathoners can compete late in their life until the age of 70 years (Jokl et al, 2004; Lepers and Cattagni, 2012), 80 years (Brendle et al, 2003) or even to 90 years (Addison et al, 2015; Ahmadyar et al, 2016), very little is known regarding elderly ultra-marathoners of very high ages (Knechtle and Nikolaidis, 2018a). We know from large data set analyses that elderly runners of 70 years (Rüst et al, 2015) up to 85 years (Rust et al, 2014) are able to finish an ultra-marathon.…”

“…Pacing is an important aspect for a successful race finish in marathon (Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2017a,b, 2018b,c; Diaz et al, 2018) and ultra-marathon (Lambert et al, 2004) running. We recently got new insights in the pacing of master marathoners (Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2017a,b, 2018b), but very little is known for the pacing of master ultra-marathoners (Knechtle et al, 2015; Rüst et al, 2015; Knechtle and Nikolaidis, 2018a; Knechtle et al, 2018a). In a recent case report pacing and recovery phase of a 94-year-old runner in a 6-h ultra-marathon has been reported (Knechtle and Nikolaidis, 2018a), but no longer ultra-marathon duration has been investigated for an ultra-marathoner of this age.…”